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ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURE 



How Plants Store Food. If you will carefully 

 remove the skin from a bean that has been soaked 

 over night, and then separate it into two parts, you 

 will discover two tiny leaves near one end, between 

 the two halves of the bean. Extending in the oppo- 

 site direction is a tiny stem and root. This little plant 

 is called the germ or embryo, and it is this germ which 



A BEAN PLANT. 

 A DICOTYLEDON. 



A SPLIT BEAN. 



E Embryo. 



C Cotyledon. 



A CORN PLANT. 



A MONOCOTYLEDON 



later develops into a full grown plant. The two halves 

 of the bean serve as a storehouse for food, and are 

 called cotyledons. If a kernel of corn is taken instead, 

 and examined in the same way, the same kind of little 

 plant will be found. Instead of two leaves pointing 

 upward, as in the bean, but one will be found in the 

 corn. The peanut will be found to resemble the bean 

 in this respect; wheat and rye resemble the corn. 



